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Demons fade against Saints, Neeld laments

Karen Lyon

Melbourne coach Mark Neeld was left to lament a second quarter fade-out as the Demons fell to St Kilda by 25 points in the third round of the pre-season Cup match played at Casey Fields.

The Demons had started the match positively, dominating the first quarter, but Neeld said a drop off in work rate in the second had allowed the more experienced Saints the opportunity to seize control of the match and run out eventual winners.

"It is just another indication of where we are at, if we have a non-competitive quarter we will lose the game," said Neeld.

"When you are playing against good, experienced sides who can go and go and go, and things are level, you drop your guard - or in our case your work rate - and the Saints were able to take advantage of that in the second quarter.

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Melbourne have turned over a third of their list since 2012, and there were nine players new to the club playing.

Neeld was happy the team lifted intensity in the second half, despite the blistering hot conditions.

"The positive for us was the way we responded in the second half ... but eventually, honourable losses - you get sick of them."

The Demons played without new recruits Chris Dawes and Jack Viney, while co-captain Jack Trengove and Mitch Clarke both continue to recover from foot fractures.

The extreme heat forced the AFL to relax the rules around the interchange, allowing teams unlimited interchange rotations.

St Kilda coach Scott Watters said the heat had been an extreme challenge.

"You are still trying to get the right amount of minutes into players so leading into round one they are conditioned well enough, so that little bit of flexibility today was really important, so it was a really good decision by the AFL," he said.

St Kilda veterans Lenny Hayes and Nick Riewoldt both played their first games for the pre-season and Watters was happy with their returns.

There was one small injury concern for the Saints; Sean Dempster played only a few minutes before being taken from the field.

Watters was cagey with the exact nature of Dempster's injury and was only prepared to say he was sore and fatigued in the legs.

"He was a little bit tight, so we took the opportunity to take him off and rest him. We will assess that over the next 24 to 48 hours. He was always going to get modified game time today but he was a little bit tight."

With just one round left of the pre-season competition, Watters said he would like to play a full strength side next week.

Senior players Ben McEvoy, Tom Hickey, David Armitage and Adam Schneider are all likely to come back into the team.